Pensieri di varia filosofia e di bella letteratura/4432

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Giacomo Leopardi - Pensieri di varia filosofia e di bella letteratura (XIX secolo)

Pagina 4432

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[p. 365 modifica] with great plausibility explains the Oscan Viteliu [p. 366 modifica]on the Samnite denary of the same age (the age of the Marsic war) to be the Sabellian form of Italia. T. I, p. 52. The analogy of Latium Samnium, gives Italium, or with the digamma Vitalium, Vitellium; and Vitellio is like Samnio. Vitalia is mentioned by Servius among the various names of the country: on Aen, VIII, 328. - p. 18. In the Tyrrhenian or the ancient Greek (not. 36. In the former, according to Apollodorus, Bibl., II, 5, 10; in the latter, according to Timaeus quoted by Gellius, XI, 1. Hellanicus of Lesbos cited by Dionysius, I, 35, does not determine the language. Tyrrhenian however here does not mean Etruscan, but Pelasgic, as in the Tyrrhenian glosses in Hesychius) italos or itulos meant an ox. The mythologers connected this with the story of Hercules driving the Geryon’s herd (not. 37. Hellanicus and Apollodorus in the passages just referred to) through the country: Timaeus, in whose days such things were no longer thought satisfactory, saw an allusion to the abundance of cattle in Italy (not. 38. Gellius, XI, 1. Piso, in Varro, de re rust. II. 1, borrowed the explanation from the Greeks)... In the Oscan name of the country (dell’antica Italia), which, as we have seen, was Vitellium, there is an evident reference to Vitellius, the son of Faunus and of Vitellia, a goddess worshipt in many parts of Italy (not. 39, Suetonius, Vitell., I). - Altrove l’autore nota che Vitulus, cognome di una famiglia romana, non è che Italus; preso, come tanti altri, dal paese originario della famiglia. (7, 1829).